Part 9 (2/2)
On the sharp mountain quietly lies your husband.'
Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not.
'Twenty deers' tongues tied to the pack on his shoulders; Not a tongue in his mouth to call to his wife with, Wolves, foxes, and ravens are fighting for morsels.
Tough and hard are the sinews, not so the child in your bosom.'
Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not.
Over the mountains slowly staggers the hunter.
Two bucks' thighs on his shoulders with bladders of fat between them.
Twenty deers' tongues in his belt. Go, gather wood, old woman!
Off flew the crow, liar, cheat, and deceiver!
Wake, little sleeper, and call to your father.
He brings you back fat, marrow and venison fresh from the mountain.
Tired and worn, he has carved a toy of the deer's horn, While he was sitting and waiting long for the deer on the hillside.
Wake, and see the crow hiding himself from the arrow, Wake, little one, wake, for here is your father.”
Thanking Alalik for the quaint song, sung in a sweet, touching voice, they all took their departure, laden with purchases and delighted with their visit. ”But you must not think this is a fair sample of Esquimo hut or Esquimo life,” said Mr. Strong to the boys. ”These are near enough civilized to show the best side of their race, but theirs must be a terrible existence who are inland or on islands where no one ever comes, and whose only idea of life is a constant struggle for food.”
”I think I would rather be an American,” remarked Ted, while Kalitan said, briefly: ”I like Thlinkit.”
CHAPTER XII
THE SPLENDOUR OF SAGHALIE TYEE
The _tundra_ was greenish-brown in colour, and looked like a great meadow stretching from the beach, like a new moon, gently upward to the cones of volcanic mountains far away. The ground, frozen solid all the year, thaws out for a foot or two on the surface during the warm months, and here and there were scattered wild flowers; spring beauties, purple primroses, yellow anemone, and saxifrages bloomed in beauty, and wild honey-bees, gay b.u.mblebees, and fat mosquitoes buzzed and hummed everywhere.
Ted and Kalitan were going to see the reindeer farm at Port Clarence, and, as this was to be their last jaunt in Alaska, they were determined to make the best of it. Next day they were to take s.h.i.+p from Cape Prince of Wales and go straight to Sitka. Here Ted was to start for home, and Mr. Strong was to leave Kalitan at the Mission School for a year's schooling, which, to Kalitan's great delight, was to be a present to him from his American friends.
”Tell us about the reindeer farms, daddy. Have they always been here?”
demanded Ted, as they tramped over the _tundra_, covered with moss, gra.s.s, and flowers.
”No,” said his father. ”They are quite recent arrivals in Alaska. The Esquimos used to live entirely upon the game they killed before the whites came. There were many walruses, which they used for many things; whales, too, they could easily capture before the whalers drove them north, and then they hunted the wild reindeer, until now there are scarcely any left. There was little left for them to eat but small fish, for you see the whites had taken away or destroyed their food supplies.
”One day, in 1891, an American vessel discovered an entire village of Esquimos starving, being reduced to eating their dogs, and it was thought quite time that the government did something for these people whose land they had bought. Finding that people of the same race in Siberia were prosperous and healthy, they sent to investigate conditions, and found that the Siberian Esquimos lived entirely by means of the reindeer. The government decided to start a reindeer farm and see if it would not benefit the natives.”
”How does it work?” asked Ted.
”Very well indeed,” said his father. ”At first about two hundred animals were brought over, and they increased about fifty per cent, the first year. Everywhere in the arctic region the _tundra_ gives the reindeer the moss he lives on. It is never dry in summer because the frost prevents any underground drainage, and even in winter the animals feed upon it and thrive. There are, it is said, hundreds of thousands of square miles of reindeer moss in Alaska, and reindeer stations have been established in many places, and, as the natives are the only ones allowed to raise them, it seems as if this might be the way found to help the industrious Esquimos to help themselves.”
”But if it all belongs to the government, how can it help the natives?”
asked Ted.
”Of course they have to be taught the business,” said Mr. Strong. ”The government brought over some Lapps and Finlanders to care for the deer at first, and these took young Esquimos to train. Each one serves five years as herder, having a certain number of deer set apart for him each year, and at the end of his service goes into business for himself.”
”Why, I think that's fine,” cried Ted. ”Oh, Daddy, what is that? It looks like a queer, tangled up forest, all bare branches in the summer.”
”That's a reindeer herd lying down for their noonday rest. What you see are their antlers. How would you like to be in the midst of that forest of branches?” asked Mr. Strong.
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